Scott R Wilson

I keyed the Mode 4 computers on the Creek Klaxon jets a few times. There were two F-4Ds from each ANG unit you mentioned, but air and ground crews from other units rotated to Ramstein every few weeks as I recall. Other than the guys at QRA none of us from the 86 TFW interacted with the ANG guys much. We (526 TFS F-4Es) and the ANG both operated out of the 417th area at Ramstein, southwest of the runway. But they were given the maintenance hangar and ops building while we were assigned to a circus tent the USAF rented. They had their own section of TAB-V shelters, so we'd have had to go out of

Jim can correct me if I'm wrong, but when he wrote "The bay doors were closed except for the one line that had a third weapon and left their bay doors open so the weapon could be inspected during the morning pre-flight" I believe he meant only one of the Victor Alert jets carried the third weapon in the bay. When I worked on F-4Es each sortie on the flying schedule was referred to as a "line," for instance "line eight cancelled due to radar inop."

As you saw from my photos on the other thread, 111FIS F-4Cs on QRA were evidently uploaded with four AIM-7E-2s in 1983. Barring other photographic evidence if anyone has it, it seems unlikely they carried live Sidewinders on QRA duty. Scott W.

That was odd, but it's still one of the best night ops videos I've seen.

https://youtu.be/xWO0IlC83sE

I found a video of 318FIS alert F-15s carrying two Sparrows in the diagonal loadout just as I remembered. The editing is done with scenes of 318th Eagles with no Sparrows and a couple of glimpses of Eagles carrying four AIM-7s interspersed in the video.

He got a ride in the middle seat of a TB-58A. The film makes it look like he was front seat qualified but he wasn't.

No worries, I've misremembered a few things over the years too. Several times I answered questions about F-4Es from memory then found photos I'd taken that proved me wrong. We do the best we can. Your information has been very interesting. What other aircraft did you work on?

For those interested in such things, nukes don't have a hyphen (dash) in the designation. B57, B43 and B61 are proper designations for nukes. B-57, B-43 and B-61 would designate airplanes, the Martin Canberra, Douglas Jetmaster and the original designation of the Martin Matador ground launched cruise missile respectively. Lots of people make the mistake with the designations, even some DoD sources. Also, the drop shape for the B61 is a BDU-38, not B-38. The B-38 was a B-17E modified to use Allison V-1710 engines, fwiw. I was stationed at Ramstein from 1983 to 1986. The weapons load trainin

I was flying a sortie on Tuesday May 24th with the Hilo Civil Air Patrol Cessna 182. I had a couple of members of the Indiana ANG in the plane, they are here TDY for training with various cameras and a datalink system they use for sending photos of disasters to FEMA while airborne. On this day they were tasked with using an infrared camera to photograph the lava tube at Pu'u O'o. What we didn't know is that about 6:50 AM a new lava outbreak had occurred. We arrived in the area about 7:20, and were amazed. It looked like a red hot river flowing down the slope. They took photos with their camera

For transits between show sites the crew chief or plane captain of each jet flew in back. For shows the Phantoms flew with pilot only for the most part, unless a photographer or other special guest rode in back.

We had to wear them at night on the flight lines at Ramstein 1983-86 and McChord 1986-91. We derisively called them "disco belts" at both bases. It made such perfect sense, wear camouflage so as not to be seen and disco belts to make sure that you were seen (that was sarcasm for anyone that didn't get it).

True story: I was stationed at McChord AFB from 1986-1991, working on 62nd MAW C-141Bs. All but one of our Starlifters were in Euro-1, just one was left in gray & white. My son was born while I was there and grew up watching me put on my BDUs everyday as I got ready for work. One day when he was about three years old, my wife drove me to work with my son sitting in the back seat. He spotted the gray & white C-141 and said, "Hey Dad, look! That jet's not dressed yet!"

Or make your model representative of how a real F-15 would be 99 percent of the time, no AIM-7s uploaded at all. Just a single captive Sidewinder trainer, no other missiles. Modelers seem to find reality rather boring, but it is how it really was. Scott W.

Cessna U-3 Blue Canoe

The F-4Cs and Es I worked on as a comm-nav avionics specialist had a "mic adapter" installed on the bulkhead behind each seat and in the left wheel well near the interphone cord connector. I was told they were there to match the microphone impedance of USAF gear to the avionics designed originally for the Navy. All I know for sure is that the mic adapters failed every now and then, causing a gawd-awful ear-splitting squeal in the intercom system. I changed a bunch of them in my five years working on USAF Phantoms. Scott W.

I was TDY to Iwakuni Marine Corps Air Station outside of Hiroshima back in 1990 and got to spend several days exploring Hiroshima. I can't help you with the locations of hobby stores but I do remember coming across a couple that were very well stocked with kits, many more kits than the shops in the Seattle and Tacoma area. Hiroshima was a big, beautiful and very clean city. I had a basic street map and found it easy to find my way around. I found a department store that was several floors high and had a small amusement park on the roof. Amazing. The food was great too. The restaurants i

I'm looking at the photo of the real jets with my iPhone so the image is pretty small, but it seems there is some variation between the tail markings. For sure "Vermont" is stenciled in a couple of different locations between the jets. I think the chevron on your model looks fine, and who is to say it doesn't exactly match one of the assigned F-102s that's not in your photo? Based on my experience working on ANG and active duty F-4s, I wouldn't be at all surprised if your model matched a real jet from that unit. There was plenty of variability in the markings of the jets I worked on. I

Unless Scott Smith also lives in Puna on the Big Island, I'm afraid you mixed me up with him. I live in Hawaiian Beaches east of Pahoa, and yes we were quite relieved when the lava flow stopped coming our way. Now it's slowly creeping toward Ainaloa, hopefully it stops again before making it that far. But I'll tell you, whatever worries we had are nothing compared to what you folks are going through. I'd take dealing with a lava flow any day. I'm hoping everything turns out okay for you two. Maybe when Sharla's healed you guys can visit out here. I'd love to show you around. Scott Wil

The model is very well done as I said, but I did note you made a common error for modeling USAF Phantoms. There's a gray and white F-4C in the "Display Case" of this site that has the same error. The inboard side of the main wheels should not be painted white. It should be a dirty rust color. Lots of modelers make this mistake. The unpainted rusty center hubs were on all F-4Cs, Ds, Es, Fs, Gs, EJs, and RF-4Cs and Es. The center plate was part of the brake system and got hot enough on landings that it sometimes glowed red hot. Paint would just burn off so these were never painted, even from the

I'm guessing you'll consider this as just being pedantic, but those are leading edge flaps, not slats. Slats when deployed have a gap (slot) between the wing and the slat. The gap allows high pressure air from under the wing to flow through the slot. The shape of the underside of the slat and leading edge of the wing turns the air flowing up through the slot and directs the air along the top of the wing. This flowing air allows the wing to generate lift at a higher angle of attack without stalling than it would without the slat and is useful for maneuvering flight as well as takeoffs and landi

Sorry, but that is incorrect. Crusaders had leading edge flaps, not slats. Slats have a gap (slot) between the slat and wing when deployed, while leading edge flaps are hinged and remain attached to the wing, with no slot. You might recall F-4 Phantoms started out with leading edge flaps, while later F-4E and F-4F versions had slats installed at the factory and older F-4Es and Js had slats retrofitted, with the slatted F-4Js being redesignated F-4S. The two types of leading edge devices are quite different. Scott W.

That must be the guy the sloop was named after ;-)

I just went through all of my F-4C photos of the 111FIS. Unfortunately the day I visited Ellington most of the jets were parked facing in a direction that with the sun angle that time of day I photographed the Phantoms from the rear quarter. So you can't see if there is anything on the Sidewinder rails, but for certain there were no Sparrows and nothing on the centerlines.